CHINA: Higher Than Everest?

From an air base in China New York Timesman
Brooks Atkinson reported that a U.S. flyer, cutting across the
mountains to Chinese Turkestan, had taken his plane up through a soupy
overcast to 31,000 ft. Said the unnamed pilot: "I was surprised to find
I was flying parallel with a mountain, between 2,000 and 3,000 ft.
below its peak."

That gave the pilot something to think about: he knew that Mt. Everest,
highest known mountain in the world, is 29,141 ft.some 3,000 ft.
lower.

What an American plane was doing on the Turkestan route, Atkinson did
not report. But directly across...